A Philosopher's Guide to Being Happy | David Pearce

Most of us think of suffering as a necessary feature of life. But what if that's just a lie we tell ourselves because we can't imagine the alternative? In this interview, David Pearce explores the practical possibilities of biomedically engineering a world of intelligent bliss.

David Pearce is an eminent figure within the transhumanist movement, and co-founder of Humanity+, an international organisation which advocates for the technological enhancement of the human species. He envisions a future completely free of suffering for both humans and non-human animals, a pain-free paradise in which all thought, feeling, and experience is sublimated into what he calls "gradients of bliss". The abolition of suffering is for David an ethical necessity, elaborated in his manifesto, The Hedonistic Imperative.